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Zhrukal Androcles
]] Zhrukhal Androcles, known as the "Siegebreaker," was the grim Captain of the 9th Devastator Company of the Star Phantoms Space Marine Chapter. During the internecine Imperial conflict known as the Badab War (904.M41-912.M41), Captain Androcles played a crucial role in the final battle of the campaign when he confronted the renegade Astral Claws Chapter Master Lufgt Huron and mortally wounded him with a point-blank Combi-Melta blast before dying from his own wounds. History Zhrukhal Androcles was a grim and relentless warrior even amongst his fellow Battle-Brothers of the Star Phantoms Chapter where such melancholy aspects of character were commonplace. Zhrukhal Androcles first made his name as a Devastator Sergeant in the bitter wars of the Gallitzin Succession fighting Traitor Astra Militarum elements of the Sentrek Freemen, where he and his squad accounted for no less than 58 tank kills in a single solar day's worth of fighting on Astrakhan. In another notable engagement, during the Battle of Orsha, Androcles breached the Renegades' Leviathan with Melta-charges and led an ad hoc assault force within, systematically butchering the Traitors' commanders as the battle raged around them. He fought his way to the main gun deck and ripped apart the corrupted Enginseers who manned the cannons with his Power Fist before turning the colossal war machine's heavy batteries against the Traitors' forces, turning the tide of the battle. Zhrukhal Androcles's rise within the Chapter after this feat was meteoric and he was soon appointed as the commander of the Star Phantoms' formidable and respected 9th Devastator Reserve Company, later earning the epithet "Siegebreaker" during the counter-invasion of Muertar Prime. During the climatic battle for the Palace of Thorns on Badab Primaris, Captain Zhrukhal Androcles was entrusted with the command of one of the strike forces attacking the heavily defended palace's citadel. Androcles's Star Phantoms pressed on through the shattered cityscape in some of the fiercest close fighting of the war, battling their way through savage counterattacks by the Astral Claws as well as multiple minefields and death traps, pressing on despite suffering heavy casualties. As the citadel's protective Lightning Field began to fail, Androcles and his surviving Star Phantoms were in a unique position to force a breach through the maze of catacombs beneath the palace. As dark fate would have it, Androcles' own detachment encountered none other than Lugft Huron and his elite bodyguard endeavouring to make their escape from their homeworld through these subterranean passages. The battle that followed was swift and bloody, and the Star Phantoms' force was wiped out to an Astartes, but data recovered from the Power Armour of the slain Star Phantoms and Astral Claws in the combat's aftermath reveals that with his dying strength, Captain Androcles managed to unleash a Melta blast at point blank range into the Tyrant of Badab, dealing him a mortal blow, though Lufgt Huron would be reborn as the Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart in subsequent months as the result of the blessings of the Dark Gods and the augmetic ministrations of his Chief Apothecary, Garreon. Wargear *'Power Armour' *'Power Fist' *'Combi-melta' *'Frag Grenades' *'Krak Grenades' *'Iron Halo' Sources *''Imperial Armour Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two'', pp. 53-54, 60, 178 *[http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/B/badabupdate-v2.pdf Forge World - Space Marine Badab War Characters Update Version 2 (6th Edition)] Category:Z Category:A Category:Badab War Category:Characters Category:History Category:Imperial Characters Category:Imperial History Category:Imperium Category:Space Marines